Landslides and Mudslides

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      Deadly Landslides in India Made Worse by Climate Change, Study Finds

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      Extreme rainfall made 10 percent heavier by human-caused climate change triggered landslides that killed hundreds, according to a new study.A sudden burst of rainfall on July 30 caused a cascade of landslides that buried hundreds of people in the mountainous Kerala region of southern India.That downpour was 10 percent heavier because of human-caused climate change, according to a study by World Weather Attribution, a group of scientists who quantify how climate change can influence extreme weather. Nearly six inches, or 150 millimeters, of rain fell on soils already highly saturated from two months of monsoon and marked the third highest single-day rain event on record for India.“The devastation in northern Kerala is concerning not only because of the difficult humanitarian situation faced by thousands today, but also because this disaster occurred in a continually warming world,” said Maja Vahlberg, a climate risk consultant at the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre. “The increase in climate-change-driven rainfall found in this study is likely to increase the number of landslides that could be triggered in the future.”In a state that is highly prone to landslides, the Wayanad district is considered the riskiest part. As of Tuesday, at least 231 people had died and 100 remained missing.The Kerala landslides were the second extreme landslide event in July, following one in Ethiopia that killed 257 people. July was the second-worst month on record, after July 2019, with 95 landslide events that caused 1,167 fatalities, according to data maintained by Dave Petley, the vice-chancellor of the University of Hull. Together, they caused roughly one-third of the more than 3,600 deaths resulting from some 429 fatal landslides recorded this year, Dr. Petley said in an email.Already, 2024 is an outlier, Dr. Petley posted to The Landslide Blog on Tuesday. He wrote that he could “only speculate on the likely underlying reasons for this very high incidence of fatal landslides,” but “the most likely cause continues to be the exceptionally high global surface temperatures, and the resultant increase in high intensity rainfall events.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Landslides Kill 150 in Ethiopia

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      A waterlogged hillside above a village gave way, burying several houses in mud. Neighbors and rescue workers who had rushed to help were hit by a second slide.More than 150 people were killed in southwestern Ethiopia on Monday after a landslide flattened several houses in a village following days of heavy rain, and neighbors who rushed to dig out those buried under the mud were hit with a second landslide about an hour later.The first landslide struck the village in the Geze district between 8:30 and 9 a.m. on Monday, said Habtamu Fetena, who heads the local government’s emergency response. Nearly 300 people from two neighboring villages ran to the area to help and began digging through the mud by hand.Then about an hour later, without warning, more mud slid down the hillside above the village, and killed many of those trying to help their neighbors.“They had no clue that the land they were standing on was about to swallow them,” Mr. Fetana said.The first landslide killed entire families as mud rolled down the hillside, officials said. Teachers and health care workers were among those killed in the second landslide. Among those killed in the second landslide was the local administrative leader, who had also rushed to the scene. Most of those who have died were men, but pregnant women and children were also among the dead, Mr. Fetana said.A man uses his hands to search for survivors and victims of the landslide.Isayas Churga/Gofa Zone Government Communication Affairs Department, via Associated PressThe death toll was expected to rise as more victims were pulled from the mud. As of Tuesday afternoon, just 10 people had been pulled alive from the landslide, officials said.The largely rural area had experienced several days of heavy rain, hampering rescue efforts and saturating the land, causing multiple landslides.The devastated village lies in a region that is increasingly vulnerable to the effects of climate change. In recent years, East Africa has experienced increasingly extreme weather, including long droughts followed by intense storms, according to the United Nations. A third of the countries considered most susceptible to the risks of climate change are in southern and eastern Africa.The area where the landslides occurred is impossible to reach by heavy machinery, so villagers and rescue workers were forced to dig by hand. Images from the scene showed a gash in the green hillside where the mud slid down, with rescue workers, knee-deep in the mud, using hoes and shovels, or their bare hands, to search for victims.The area has seen disasters like this before, another local administrator, Dagmawi Ayele, told the Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation. While some villages were moved after previous disasters, landslides were now occurring in unexpected regions, he added.A video released by the local government shows survivors of the landslide in southwestern Ethiopia.Gofa Zone Government Communication Affairs Department, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images More

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      Dozens Dead or Missing After China Highway Collapse

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      It was the second such rain-related disaster in less than three months, as extreme weather challenges the country’s extensive network of newly built expressways.At least a dozen people were killed and many more remained missing on Saturday after part of a highway bridge collapsed Friday night amid heavy rain in western China. It was the second deadly episode in the country in less than three months involving the failure of a stretch of highway.State media reported early Saturday afternoon that 12 bodies and seven vehicles had been found, and that one person had been rescued. Eighteen vehicles and 31 people were still missing.A photograph released by the official Xinhua news agency on Saturday showed how a bridge in one direction of the highway had snapped. A section of it was folded downward, nearly perpendicular, into a churning, muddy river. A separate bridge that supported traffic in the other direction remained standing.The head of the Ministry of Emergency Management, Wang Xiangxi, went to the site Saturday morning and was overseeing a rescue effort that involved 869 people, 93 vehicles, 41 drones, 20 boats and a sonar system, according to the authorities.Both Xi Jinping, China’s top leader, and Premier Li Qiang, the country’s second-highest leader, ordered all-out rescue efforts.They had issued similar instructions after the previous disaster, which occurred on May 1 also amid heavy rain. At least 48 people died after a section of expressway running along the side of a hill in southeastern China gave way, apparently because a landslide began underneath it. Mr. Xi had ordered that local governments across China pay more attention to identifying and dealing with such risks.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Deadly Flooding and Landslides in Nepal

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      In this monsoon season, so far there have been more than 60 weather-related fatalities. With roads cut off and more rain expected, the toll could rise.Landslides and floods set off by torrential rains have killed at least 15 people in Nepal in the last 24 hours, officials in the small Himalayan nation said on Sunday, expressing fear that with further heavy rains expected, that number could rise.Eighteen people were also injured in the flooding over the past 24 hours, and two are missing, said Dan Bahadur Karki, a police spokesman. Dozens of people were evacuated to safety, including some pulled from the rubble of their damaged homes.Officials said the landslides had hampered vehicle traffic in most parts of a country where the terrain already makes travel difficult. Highways were damaged, as were the serpentine roads that connect cities with mountain villages. Military and police forces were deployed to help clear the roads.Koshi, Gandaki and Bagmati Provinces, in the east and center of the country, were among the hardest hit. Weather experts predict that heavy rainfall could affect the remaining provinces as the rain heads west.Nepal, which is among the places most vulnerable to climate change, routinely faces landslides and floods. Last year’s monsoon affected nearly 6,000 households, damaging homes and flooding fields. Since the beginning of the current monsoon season in June, at least 62 people have lost their lives, according to the country’s home ministry. Most of the deaths were because of flooding, but lightning was also a factor.Political instability and widespread corruption have complicated a disaster response already short on resources.The coalition government in Kathmandu is in disarray again, with a new alliance seeking to topple the current prime minister, Pushpa Kamal Dahal. If he is ousted, the country will get its second government since the parliamentary elections held in November 2022. More

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      Mountain Landslide Destroys Section of Highway to Jackson, Wyo.

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      The road, linking Idaho with Wyoming, is a key route to Jackson Hole, a tourism hub. It had been closed to traffic before the landslide.A landslide in the Teton mountains destroyed part of a highway that links Idaho to Jackson, Wyo., forcing the authorities to close the road indefinitely on Saturday just as the area was entering its summer tourism season.No one was injured when a section of the Teton Pass “catastrophically failed,” the Wyoming Department of Transportation said in a statement on Saturday. The highway west of Jackson had been closed to traffic before the road gave way, and crews were working to build a detour around a section where a crack had appeared in the surface days earlier.The department said it expected a long-term closure. Gov. Mark Gordon of Wyoming said in a separate statement that geologists and engineers would “develop a long-term solution to rebuild the roadway.”Even a short closure would pose major logistical challenges for the area, in part because the road serves Jackson Hole, a major tourism hub in Teton County. Travel and tourism is Wyoming’s second-largest industry, according to the Jackson Hole Travel and Tourism Board, and the county took in about $1.7 billion in travel-related spending in 2022.“We understand this highway is a lifeline for commuters, deliveries, medical care access and tourism, especially with limited alternatives and the summer season upon us,” Darin Westby, the director of the state’s Transportation Department, said in a separate statement.The department’s “engineers, surveyors and geologists mobilized quickly to try to maintain highway viability as long as possible, but catastrophic failure could not be avoided,” Mr. Westby said.The Jackson Hole Chamber of Commerce said on its website that travelers could still reach the Jackson area from the west by taking two other roads through the Snake River Canyon. But that detour adds more than an hour of driving time, the local news outlet WyoFile reported.The section of Wyoming State Highway 22 that collapsed was initially closed earlier in the week after cracks appeared in the surface. It reopened after crews patched the cracks but was closed again after a separate mudslide a few miles away sent mud and debris spilling over the road, the Transportation Department said.The department said in its statement on Saturday that its crews were still working to clear that mud and debris. More

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      Death Toll in Papua New Guinea Landslide Estimated to Be at Least 670

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      More than 48 hours after the disaster, its full extent remains unclear, with aid slow to reach survivors and conditions on the ground still dangerous.At least 670 people are assumed to have died after a landslide in Papua New Guinea, according to a local United Nations official. The landslide hit a rural region of the island nation early Friday, but search-and-rescue efforts have been hampered by difficulty in reaching the disaster site and by the hazard that the shifting ground continues to pose.This danger has prompted many survivors to abandon their homes, according to Serhan Aktoprak, the chief of mission at the International Organization for Migration’s office in Papua New Guinea, who estimated that over 250 houses were abandoned and that roughly 1,250 people were displaced.The region, in Enga Province, is densely populated, according to local officials, and has a young population. The authorities fear that many of the fatalities will be children under 15.The local government secured food and water for around 600 people, Mr. Aktoprak said, and a humanitarian convoy of local officials and members of the International Organization for Migration headed to the region on Sunday. An aid convoy had gotten through on Saturday afternoon to deliver tarps and water, but no food.Conditions have made distribution difficult. As of Sunday afternoon, land was still sliding, rocks were falling and the soil was cracking from increased pressure and running groundwater. No earth-moving equipment had arrived, and people were searching for bodies using tools like spades and pitchforks, Mr. Aktoprak said.The region has seen tribal clashes over the past few months. On Saturday morning, a quarrel flared between two clans, raising safety fears for those traveling on the only road available. Eight died in the clash and dozens of houses were burned down, Mr. Aktoprak said.The landslide struck the village about 3 a.m. Friday, hitting homes when many residents were asleep. Some of the boulders that buried houses and cut off a major highway were larger than shipping containers. More

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      Big Sur Urged to Evacuate as Another Storm Approaches

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      Officials are advising people to leave one of the nation’s most scenic coastal stretches before rain washes away more of Highway 1.California officials temporarily shut down part of Highway 1 on Wednesday and warned residents to evacuate one of the nation’s most scenic coastal stretches as an incoming bout of spring rain threatened to worsen a road collapse near Big Sur.The emergency orders, issued by the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office and the California Department of Transportation, came as the state and local authorities scrambled to rebound from a landslide last weekend in which a sizable portion of Highway 1 crumbled after a day of heavy rainfall.The so-called slip-out, which stranded more than a thousand motorists overnight along the famous state highway, was the product of winter storms that for months have saturated California. The collapse sent massive chunks of pavement tumbling into the Pacific Ocean north of Big Sur and narrowed nearly two miles of road to a single lane.For the last several days, state transportation officials have urged motorists to avoid the area and have gingerly shepherded local and emergency traffic around the missing section of highway. Jim Shivers, a spokesman for the state transportation agency, known as Caltrans, said the twice-daily convoys had accommodated an average of about 150 vehicles in each direction per day.But with rain expected to return on Thursday and Friday, Caltrans canceled the convoys through Friday.“They only expect about half an inch, but we don’t want to take any chances,” Mr. Shivers said. “It’s the end of a wet rainy season, so any additional moisture has the potential for additional landslide or mudslide activity.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      California Highway 1 Collapse Leaves 2,000 Tourists Stranded

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      Many stayed in temporary shelters, hotels and campgrounds overnight on Saturday, while some slept in their cars. A portion of scenic Highway 1 in the Big Sur area of California collapsed Saturday stranding about 2,000 motorists, mostly tourists, overnight.Officials with the California Department of Transportation said on Sunday that a section of the southbound highway located in the Central Coast, would remain closed to the public while crews worked on the affected areas. Large chunks of the road fell into the ocean. The highway, also known as the Pacific Coast Highway, features stretches of rocky cliffs, lush mountains, panoramic beaches and coastal redwood forests.There were no reported injuries. Caltrans, the agency, did not give an estimate of when it expected to fully reopen the highway. Officials did not say what led to the collapse, but torrential rain battered the area near Rocky Creek Bridge, which is about 17 miles south of Monterey. Kevin Drabinski, a spokesman for Caltrans, said the officials determined that the damage was severe enough to close the highway for motorists Saturday afternoon.“Caltrans became aware that we had lost portion of the southbound lane and that necessitated a full closure of Highway 1,” Mr. Drabinski said. We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More